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App etiquette: do’s and don’ts of mobile apps in ecommerce
In 2024 the total time spent using retail apps blew past 100 billion hours globally and over three quarters of retail site visits in the US came from smartphones.
The takeaway? A strong mobile presence isn’t optional anymore—it’s critical. But having a mobile-friendly version of your website isn’t enough. To truly stand out, you need a seamless, thoughtful app experience.
Over my career in ecommerce—from early days at Shopify to leading sales at a mobile app builder, and now as co-founder of Reactiv—I’ve seen firsthand what separates a great mobile ecommerce experience from a forgettable one.
Working with some of the biggest brands in the industry has taught me not just what works, but also what to avoid entirely.
In this article, I’ll share the key “do’s and don’ts” of mobile ecommerce apps, offering actionable insights to help you launch an app that wows your customers and drives results.
Mobile commerce trends: being mobile-friendly is not enough
Customers have high expectations about their shopping experience on all devices. Having a mobile-friendly site is no longer enough. In fact, it’s now the bare minimum.
Customers not only prefer making purchases on dedicated mobile apps, but they’re more likely to purchase too: This year, the sales conversion rate of dedicated mobile apps was 3.5% vs 2% for mobile websites. Mobile apps also had an average cart abandonment rate of 20% vs 97% for mobile websites.
That is a staggering difference.
If you haven’t thought about developing an app for your ecommerce brand yet, now’s the time.
Building for success: the do’s of modern app building
Building an app can be confusing and overwhelming. I’m here to make it easy. Let’s start positive and explore the do’s, first.
Have a clear business strategy and outcome
While I just spent the first part of this article raving about mobile apps, it doesn’t mean you should immediately rush out and build.
When launching a mobile app for your brand, ask yourself:
- Why should a mobile app exist for my brand?
- What does it mean for my business?
- What does it mean for my customers?
When those answers are clear, the strategy for your app and the purpose it’ll serve for your customers will reveal itself. If your app doesn’t have a good use case, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle to drive customer adoption.
Work smarter, not harder, and build an app that serves a strong purpose for you, your business, and your customers.
Plan for long-term growth
Having a mobile app isn’t passive — it needs to be actively tied into marketing campaigns and treated as an important platform for your business. Growth must be fostered and re-engagement is crucial. Some questions to consider:
- How will you sustain incentives over time to maintain steady growth?
- How will your app marketing strategies organically tie into your planned marketing campaigns?
Regularly keep your app updated and optimized post-launch and ensure it’s compatible with new OS versions and devices. It’s also important to stay in compliance with both the App Store and Google Play Store rules. Follow each store’s guidelines for features like signing in with Apple/Google, account deletion, and subscription cancellation.
Your app should be an important part of your marketing and business efforts moving forward — ensure it gets the attention it deserves.
Prioritize re-engagement strategies
Two questions:
- What are the incentives for customers to download your app vs just using your mobile site?
- What are the incentives for customers to re-visit your app?
Having a re-engagement strategy can help answer those questions.
I recommend incentivizing app downloads and repeat visits with in-app offers for new customers and loyalty rewards for repeat users.
But here’s the catch: not every shopper is ready to commit to downloading your app. This is where Reactiv Clips shine.
Reactiv Clips are lightweight, instant app experiences that deliver the full functionality of a mobile app without requiring a download. Think of them as mini-apps that shoppers can access directly from a link—whether in an email, SMS, or ad—or by scanning a QR code.
These clips create an effortless way for shoppers to interact with your brand, browse products, and even complete purchases—all without leaving their browsers.
Once a shopper interacts with a Reactiv Clip, it opens up a unique opportunity: an 8-hour window where you can send personalized push notifications without needing them to opt in. These notifications let you instantly re-engage users with tailored messages like abandoned cart reminders, exclusive offers, or product recommendations.
It’s simple: an app can only drive revenue if customers keep coming back. Give them a reason to. Reactiv Clips give you a seamless, innovative way to make that happen.
Ensure your app reflects your brand
You’ve already built and cultivated a brand, so it only makes sense to continue that with your app experience.
While it can be tempting to use an app to try creative new looks and approaches to your brand and take advantage of the medium, businesses with consistent brands see 33% higher revenue and 20% higher overall growth when compared to brands with off-brand content.
Don’t shape your brand to a mobile experience, shape your mobile experience to your brand.
Leverage integrations
Take advantage of your marketing stack!
Leverage integrations to provide features like live chat and product reviews to enhance customer engagement while simultaneously improving the customer experience.
If you’re looking to build your app with Reactiv, we provide many integration options, such as Klayvio for email and SMS marketing and GA4, so you can have consistent, relevant analytics across all platforms.
Your app shouldn’t be siloed away from the rest of your marketing stack. Leverage integrations to enhance the app experience for both you and your customers.
Craft intuitive user journeys
I can’t tell you how many apps I’ve uninstalled because they’re immediately challenging to navigate.
UX is as important on an app as it is on a website. Craft intuitive user journeys to provide a smooth shopping experience that is built to foster conversions.
As Al Doan, founder of Missouri Star Quilt Company shared:
“On the website, it can be like Times Square. Pick your poison. Here’s our billboard—we're going to put this all up here, and you guys find what you want. On an app, you pick the thing you want people to click on and give them two or three options in there. You're trying to get them into a journey that's customized for them.”
Keep the app’s home screen organized and uncluttered, and tailor the shopping experience with tools like featured collections and promo banners.
Focus on the desired user journey from opening the app to conversion and keep it obstacle-free while promoting intuitive discovery.
Optimize your app for performance
Customer experience is paramount to app retention after the initial use. Avoid frustrating customers by ensuring your app is optimized, especially after new firmware releases.
Focus on usability and ensure your app has fast response times, smooth scrolling, and seamless navigation to provide a strong customer experience and encourage repeat use.
Apple has specific rules targeting some usability features as well that you’ll need to follow to avoid getting delisted. These include:
- Styling and placement of Sign-in with Apple and Apple Pay features
- Making it reasonably easy for customers to delete their accounts
- Selling of digital content (ebooks, music, movies, subscriptions)
Customers don’t have to use your app, so they need to want to. Make sure it’s optimized and responsive at all times so they’re encouraged to re-engage.
Incorporate express payment methods
Did you know you can improve conversion rates by 10 - 15% with an optimized payment process?
Apps are about convenience and providing a simple experience for your customers. Incorporating express payment methods like Shop Pay, Google Pay, and Apple Pay can significantly help with this.
Reduce friction and avoid overcomplicating the sale — use express payment methods to avoid customers dropping due to a convoluted payment process.
Modern app building: the don’ts
Now you know what makes a strong mobile app. Before you build yours, I want to highlight a few common mistakes I notice from brands as well. Avoid these pitfalls, and you’re golden!
Don’t neglect analytics
There’s nothing more disheartening than realizing your analytics haven’t been tracking properly.
Don’t miss out on valuable data — test your integrations like Klayvio and GA4 early to ensure reliable data collection.
Analytics aren’t just a way to track conversions. Insights into how your customers use your app can provide valuable data, and you don’t want to miss out on learning that early.
Don’t ignore customer feedback
Your customers are the key to your app’s success or failure, so it’s important to monitor customer feedback.
Reviews on the App Store and Google Play Store are a great way to do this, as well as keeping an eye on feedback shared on social media.
Don’t chase feature parity with your website
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see from brands.
Your app is its own distinct entity. Don’t make it a carbon copy of your website—otherwise, what’s the point?
While both are built to drive conversions, customers use apps and websites differently, and the customer experience should reflect that. Instead of replicating your website, focus on optimizing for the unique possibilities of mobile shopping: clear visuals, functional linking, and value-added features that go beyond what your site can offer.
Take Med School Bro, for example. This education-focused ecommerce brand recognized that its mobile-first audience—pre-med and med students—needed more than just a website to access its resources. By launching a mobile app with Reactiv, they created a deeply personalized experience tailored to their customers' academic journeys.
The Med School Bro app offers features that aren’t possible on a traditional website, like:
- Daily quizzes and weekly trivia: These features allow students to test their knowledge on the go, keeping them engaged outside of traditional study methods.
- Hyper-personalized product recommendations: By analyzing quiz results and in-app behavior, the brand can deliver tailored offers, such as discounts on specific study guides, that directly address customer needs.
- Push notifications without opt-ins: Reactiv App Clips enable Med School Bro to reach users without requiring a download or opt-in. For example, they can send reminders for abandoned carts or personalized offers, bridging the gap between browsing and purchase.
Brandon Portnoff, Co-Founder of Med School Bro, sums it up: “Our mobile app lets us be with customers throughout their entire journey. It gives us access to valuable data and enables us to engage them with timely, relevant messaging in ways we simply couldn’t on our website.”
By leveraging the unique capabilities of a mobile app, Med School Bro turned its app into a tool for retention, engagement, and conversion—not just an extension of its website.
Don’t overuse push notifications
Customers opt-in for information, not to be annoyed.
Push notifications can be a great marketing tool, but are easily overused. Use them strategically and sparingly to gently remind customers to return with lost cart reminders and exclusive offers.
88% of users are more likely to engage with an app after 90 days if they’ve opted in to push notifications, so if customers have opted in they are ready and willing to engage. That being said, more than 50% of customers think that push notifications are annoying, and 37% of people would mute an app that sends more than 2 push notifications a week. You need to tread carefully.
Use push notifications to your advantage to re-engage customers, but don’t overuse and drive them away.
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Mobile app conventions exist for a reason. Users want a familiar experience that just works.
As I mentioned earlier, you want to style the app to match your brand to avoid confusing customers. Despite this, it’s okay to make tweaks to ensure you’re using native UX conventions that customers already know. This way, they’ll feel like pros right away.
A simple in-app experience will drive more conversions than a convoluted one.
Don’t gate the experience behind a sign-up wall
35% of customers use a brand’s app because of convenience, and nothing is more inconvenient than a forced login. It may lead to more abandonment and even app rejection from app stores.
Instead, let customers browse without logging in and make it easy to remain signed in once they’ve created an account.
Reactiv Clips is a great tool for a lightning-fast, sign-in-free app experience. Learn more about Reactiv Clips here.
Make it easier for customers to immediately start browsing your app to increase customer retention and reduce checkout friction.
Don’t overlook incentives for app adoption
Brand loyalty alone won’t drive app downloads.
You might get your diehards, but once they download, growth isn’t going to come on its own. To encourage continuous app adoption, incentives are a great option.
Here are a few proven strategies to drive app downloads and keep users engaged:
- Exclusive Discounts: Offer app-only discounts or flash sales that reward users for downloading and shopping through your app. For example, “Get 15% off your first app purchase!”
- Early Access: Give app users first dibs on new product launches or sales. Knowing they’ll have early access can encourage fans to download and engage.
- Loyalty Rewards: Enhance your loyalty program with app-exclusive perks, like bonus points or rewards for in-app purchases.
- Gamified Experiences: Use interactive features like daily quizzes, spin-to-win games, or challenges that can only be accessed through the app to make it fun and rewarding for customers to engage.
- Seamless Order Tracking: Encourage downloads post-purchase by offering app-only order tracking with instant updates and push notifications—no lost emails in inboxes.
- Personalized Recommendations: Use in-app behavior to provide tailored product suggestions or offers that feel unique to the customer.
By offering tangible benefits like exclusive discounts, you can grow the customer base of both your app and your brand as a whole.
Don’t rely on app store paid ads
Take it from me: app store ads can work, but they’re just not great for commerce apps.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re great for games and productivity apps. But if you’re trying to promote your ecommerce app, they don’t have much of an impact, and your advertising budget is better spent elsewhere.
Instead, maximize your downloads by seamlessly integrating your app messaging into your existing campaign messaging.
Technical essentials: the do’s and don’ts for app development
Hopefully, my list of the do’s and don’ts has made you feel more confident dipping your toes into the world of ecommerce apps. But there’s still a little more ground to cover!
The technical aspect of app building is often intimidating for businesses looking to get into the app game for the first time. To help set you on the right track, I’ve compiled a small list of technical do’s and don’ts.
Get your tech hat on and read on!
Technical app building do’s
- Adopt a modular approach - break down components into reusable, maintainable reusable parts. This also allows you to keep presentation components separate from business logic, providing better scalability for your app.
- Optimize performance - consistently optimize your app for performance and take measures to make sure it’s lightning-fast. Use optimized libraries like react-native-fast-image and performance boosters such as React.memo and useMemo to keep things nice and speedy.
- Prioritize cross-platform compatibility - the days of platform wars are long over! Performance should be strong on all devices. Ensure your in-app experience is smooth on both iOS and Android.
- Conduct rigorous testing - test rigorously and constantly leading up to launch. Include comprehensive testing for usability, security, and platform-specific functionality to ensure everything is running nicely under the hood.
- Focus on accessibility - accessibility is becoming more important than ever, and rightfully so. Focus on usability and accessibility so anyone who wants to use your app can use it. Implement accessibility features wherever possible and test your app with a screen reader to ensure inclusivity.
Technical app building don’ts
- Don’t overuse complex state management - simplicity is not only key for your customers, but your back-end as well. Avoid libraries like Redux unless necessary. Use simpler tools like React Context to reduce overhead.
- Don’t neglect performance for long lists - replace ScrollView and instead use an optimized FlatList or SectionList. This will keep things moving smoothly as customers explore your app.
- Don’t hardcode font sizes - let your customers control how they view content while ensuring everything always displays properly on any screen. Use responsive libraries so you can adjust to user preferences.
- Don’t rely heavily on third-party libraries - avoid unnecessary dependencies that could bloat the app or introduce bugs. Keep things in-house as much as possible.
One more “do”: build your app with Reactiv
I’m confident if you follow these do’s and don’ts, you can build a successful ecommerce app regardless of how you build it. But my recommendation to maximize success? Reactiv.
Yes, I’m recommending the platform I co-founded, but it’s because we built it with these DO’s and DON’T’s in mind from the beginning.
While the mobile app experience is crucial and irreplaceable, apps themselves are expensive, slow to build, and force customers to download before they can engage. Even when your app is released, scaling your mobile strategy can feel impossible.
Traditional apps are riddled with friction — slow downloads, low conversions, and no way to reconnect with shoppers who skip push notifications.
Most people think this is the unavoidable reality of building an app, but Reactiv circumvents all of this.
Reactiv lets you launch lightweight, fully-featured custom mobile experiences that convert faster, retarget ad clicks for free and engage shoppers instantly — no opt-ins or downloads needed.
With Reactiv, you can:
- Build and customize your app with modular React components that adapt to your needs
- Retarget every ad click through Reactiv Clips and build apps that convert without technical bottlenecks
- Customize your app to add unique pages and improve your brand experience.
- Launch an app faster and make updates at warp-speed.
Why should you constantly have to choose between speed or quality? We want you to choose both, and Reactiv can make that possible. Get started here.
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Why companies that sell App Builders and offer custom development are not what’s best for your business
You’re leading the ecommerce engine for a high-growth brand. You’re ready to take the next step—launching a mobile app to capitalize on customer loyalty and drive more revenue.
The business case writes itself: mobile apps convert 2-3x higher than websites and drive 3-5x more repeat visits per customer. A well-executed mobile app could increase revenue for your business by 10% or more.
You want an app that delivers an elevated experience for your best customers—one that’s as unique as your brand.
So, what are your options?
❌ Option 1: Hire an expensive agency and pay hundreds of thousands for a custom app—plus a fortune in ongoing maintenance.
❌ Option 2: Use a cookie-cutter app builder that barely lets you customize beyond colours and logos.
🤔 Option 3: Work with a company that sells an App Builder and offers Professional Development Services to bridge the gaps.
On the surface, Option 3 seems like the best of both worlds. The company’s professional services team can ensure your needs are met, and who better to customize the app than the people who built the platform?
⚠️ But BEWARE—this setup creates a fundamental conflict of interest that leads to poor products and disappointed brands.
Misaligned Business Incentives
A truly product-led company should focus on building a scalable, intuitive platform. But when professional services enter the mix, the incentives shift. Instead of improving the product, the company may intentionally leave gaps, using services as a revenue stream rather than enhancing self-serve capabilities.
Compromised Product Roadmaps
This conflict distorts product roadmaps. Do they prioritize features that simplify and automate tasks, or do they keep things complex so their services team can step in? Too often, services-driven businesses favour short-term revenue over long-term product excellence.
Slower Feature Development
Custom work for individual clients creates tech debt that requires ongoing support. This fragments the codebase, bogs down engineering teams, and slows down innovation. Instead of pushing out cutting-edge features, they’re stuck maintaining scattered one-off projects.
Disappointing Results
Brands that take this route almost always regret it:
👎 Feature Gaps - The product has more missing features than expected.
👎 Overbudget - Professional services hours end up far higher than anticipated.
👎 Delays - The project runs months longer than promised.
👎 Poor Quality - Custom development full of bugs and performance issues.
The app launches later than expected and lacking in appeal. The brand’s most loyal customers download the app. But the app stagnates. Basic feature requests take years to roll out, if they ever come. New ideas require more costly custom development. Before long, the app is buggy and outdated. Even the brand’s most devoted customers abandon it.
What Reactiv Does Differently
At Reactiv, our approach is simple: build products that stand on their own. We don’t offer professional development services because we focus on relentless product innovation. This is why we roll out more features in two weeks than our competitors do in two years.
That’s why we offer industry-leading innovations like:
🚀 AI-Powered Onboarding - use the power of AI to cut down the time and effort needed to launch an app
📈 Reactiv Clips - drive customer acquisition and growth without pushing an app download.
What about brands that need customization?
Instead of locking customers into expensive service contracts, we empower them with Reactiv Plus - a set of enterprise tools built for developers and agencies. We handle the complex problems (platform, security, and infrastructure), so they can efficiently build your custom experiences on top of a solid foundation.
Reactiv Plus is the foundation of our platform. There is no conflict of interest when we invest effort into it because it doesn’t compete with our core feature roadmap; it enables it. Reactiv’s engineering teams use the Reactiv Plus foundations to build features. As we enhance it, we simultaneously enable your agencies and developers to build customizations faster and enable Reactiv’s internal teams to launch features faster.
Evidence that Reactiv’s approach works:
- Reactiv enabled the Missouri Star Quilt Company to turnaround around their collapsed app from another app provider into a growth success story (Link here)
- Agency Partner Domaine loves building custom app experiences with Reactiv (Link here)
When you invest in a mobile app, you’re investing in your business’s future. Choose a platform that’s built to scale, not one that profits from your struggles. Choose Reactiv.
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Your ad funnel just got smarter: A new approach to mobile engagement
What’s your perfect marketing campaign? …We’re guessing it’s one that gets you results.
For most marketers, what your campaign is doesn’t matter as long as it’s performing and delivering the conversions you’re looking for.
So, what if we told you there’s a new campaign that is high-converting, and very few brands are using it? It’s leveraging a new tool called Reactiv Clips.
Imagine getting your audience to engage with your mobile app—without requiring downloads—and retargeting every ad click using push notifications.
Yes, you can actually do this.
With Reactiv Clips, your campaigns deliver more conversions, less friction, and double the value of every click. Let’s explore how Reactiv Clips can elevate various marketing strategies and bring your campaigns to life.
But first, what are Reactiv Clips?
Reactiv Clips are a revolutionary way to provide smartphone users with the functionality of a mobile app without requiring a full download (no more App Store redirects!).
These lightweight, instant experiences load in seconds and allow users to engage with a brand seamlessly.
To get it straight, these aren’t just app-like experiences; they’re fully integrated marketing powerhouses.
Reactiv Clips transform how brands engage with users by providing rich interactions while also enabling retargeting through push notifications. This feature alone allows brands to connect with customers long after the initial interaction—whether that’s reminding them of an abandoned cart or promoting a Black Friday sale.
When integrated into your ad funnel, Reactiv Clips create a streamlined journey. Instead of leading users to static landing pages, ad clicks direct them to a Reactiv Clip, where they can interact with products or explore offers in an immersive way. Coupled with the ability to retarget users who don’t convert immediately, Reactiv Clips transform every part of the customer journey into a conversion opportunity.
Campaigns transformed with Reactiv Clips
Let’s break this idea down farther. What campaigns could you actually run leveraging Reactiv Clips? Here are just a few.
Turning brand awareness campaigns into an experience
Building brand awareness requires connecting with your audience on a deeper level. Reactiv Clips allow you to share your story and highlight your unique value propositions in a way that static ads cannot.
For example, a lifestyle brand could use a Reactiv Clip to present a curated collection of its top offerings, paired with a video introduction from the founder.
This immersive experience draws the audience into the brand’s world, creating a memorable first impression while driving awareness.
Supercharging your flash sales
Seasonal sales, flash sales, and clearance events are the bread and butter of ecommerce.
Reactiv Clips bring these campaigns to life by offering interactive experiences that highlight specific sale categories.
Imagine a fashion retailer promoting a Black Friday sale through a Reactiv Clip. Shoppers could swipe through featured categories like “Outerwear,” “Party Looks,” and “Winter Accessories,” each leading to a seamless checkout experience.
Paired with personalized push notifications, these campaigns drive urgency and conversion.
Running product launch campaigns
When launching a new product, excitement is key. Reactiv Clips offer a dynamic way to spotlight your latest innovation.
For example, a tech company unveiling a new gadget could use a Reactiv Clip to showcase its features in an interactive demo. Users could explore the product’s capabilities, view pricing options, and even pre-order—all within the clip. This approach not only captures attention but also simplifies the purchase process, ensuring fewer drop-offs.
Capitalizing on timing or trends
The holiday season, back-to-school shopping, or summer sales are opportunities to connect with your audience’s seasonal needs. Reactiv Clips enable brands to create curated collections that align with specific times of the year.
A home decor brand could design a Reactiv Clip featuring its holiday gift guide, complete with shoppable product categories like “Stocking Stuffers” and “Cozy Living.” By embedding push notifications, the brand can remind shoppers of time-sensitive offers or limited stock.
Upselling and cross-selling
Encouraging customers to purchase complementary or higher-value items becomes seamless with Reactiv Clips.
Imagine a skincare brand using Reactiv Clips to recommend a moisturizer on the product page of a cleanser. The clip could highlight the benefits of using the two products together, increasing the likelihood of an upsell.
These personalized interactions not only enhance the shopping experience but also boost the average order value.
Winning back inactive customers
Winning back inactive customers requires thoughtful re-engagement strategies. Reactiv Clips allow brands to send personalized emails linking to collections tailored to customers’ past interests.
For example, a fitness brand could re-engage dormant users by sending a Reactiv Clip featuring workout gear or fitness plans aligned with their previous purchases. Plus, cart abandonment campaigns become more effective with clips that show the exact items left behind and provide a seamless checkout option.
Using paid ads to drive ROI
Reactiv Clips are a game-changer for paid ad campaigns, lowering customer acquisition costs and increasing conversion rates. Instead of directing users to a static web page, paid ads can link to Reactiv Clips that offer interactive product demos or curated collections.
For new customers, Reactiv Clips boast significantly higher add-to-cart and conversion rates compared to traditional web links. Even better, every visit to a Reactiv Clip comes with up to eight hours of re-engagement through push notifications, ensuring your ad spend delivers long-lasting value.
Boosting organic traffic
For brands focused on organic growth, Reactiv Clips enhance the effectiveness of content-driven campaigns. By integrating Reactiv Clips into blog posts or SEO-driven landing pages, brands can offer dynamic experiences that keep visitors engaged.
For repeat customers, Reactiv Clips are even more impactful, offering tailored product recommendations or exclusive offers that align with their preferences. This approach not only increases add-to-cart rates but also drives app downloads for longer-term engagement.
Turning every interaction into a conversion
Reactiv Clips redefine the potential of digital marketing campaigns.
Whether you’re building brand awareness, driving sales during peak seasons, or re-engaging past customers, Reactiv Clips ensure your strategies deliver more conversions and less friction.
By transforming every touchpoint into an interactive, app-like experience, Reactiv Clips help brands capture attention, drive action, and achieve their goals.
If you’re ready to make your campaigns smarter, more engaging, and highly effective, it’s time to start your Reactiv Clip Ad Funnel.
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How brands are breaking the norm with ecommerce mobile apps in 2025
We designed Reactiv to be much more than a mobile app builder. And we’re working on that mission every day.
2024 was filled with learning. We introduced Reactiv to more ecommerce merchants, helping them build truly unique mobile experiences that increase conversions, boost AOV, and reach customers where they are.
In 2025, we’re building on our insights to deliver even more value. Starting with this post.
We’ve compiled everything we’ve learned, backed up by real stories from real customers, to teach you how to build the best ecommerce mobile strategy—one that’s literally guaranteed to close the gap between discovery and conversion.
Creating interactive pages to drive up engagement
Ecommerce mobile apps aren’t just another sales channel.
They’re a way to create a unique experience that customers won’t find anywhere else, including your website. Go beyond the standard product pages and checkout and give your customers a reason to use your app (and return to use it again).
Building a valuable mobile app seems like a lot of work, but it’s not with Reactiv. You can quickly launch a mobile experience that drives acquisition, conversions, and customer loyalty.
Don’t just take my word for it, though.
Missouri Star Quilt Company (MSQC) launched a mobile app to create a personalized shopping experience for loyal customers. In just 2 weeks, the app garnered 50,000 users and drove 10% of total revenue.
That type of success requires a clear, well-defined mobile strategy.
Before launching an ecommerce app, consider two questions:
- What are the incentives for customers to download your app vs. just using your mobile site?
- What are the incentives for customers to re-visit your app?
Having a re-engagement strategy can help answer those questions.
I recommend incentivizing app downloads and repeat visits with in-app offers for new customers and loyalty rewards for repeat users.
Let’s take a look at two ecommerce brands that have tailored their app directly to their ideal customer’s needs.
Med School Bro creates excitement with in-app daily quizzes
Founded as an alternative to archaic medical school study resources, Med School Bro sells engaging study guides, flashcards, and PDFs to help students ace their exams.
Staying true to their mission, Med School Bro designed a mobile app that was just as exciting. They’ve embedded ‘Question of the Day’ quizzes and weekly trivia features to encourage user engagement.
Based on the first-party data collected in-app, like quiz results, Med School Bro provides personalized product recommendations to increase conversions.
This unique element of their app closes the loop from engagement to conversion to re-engagement.
MSQC incentivizes app visits with live shopping and daily deals
MSQC created a curated and thoughtful user journey for its quilting community via its mobile app’s intuitive UI.
To help customers navigate the thousands of SKUs they offer, MSQC embedded two elements in its mobile app:
- Bundles: These allow shoppers to hold items for seven days while they add items to their cart, aiming to qualify for free shipping and consolidated shipments.
- Daily Deals: MSQC lists deeply discounted items each day to encourage swift, impulse purchases.
Offering these unique features exclusive to the app has sparked frequent transactions and increased customer loyalty.
Using Reactiv Clips as an acquisition tool
It’s clear mobile apps hold a lot of revenue-generating potential for ecommerce brands.
But what if your customers don’t want to download another app?
Well, they don’t have to.
Reactiv Clips eliminate the need for app downloads while delivering a full, seamless app experience for shoppers. They are mini versions of mobile apps that allow users to access a specific app feature, like making a purchase or browsing a product, directly from an ad, email, or QR code.
Not only does this combat app fatigue for your shoppers, but it also gives you the ability to retarget users.
Reactiv Clips give you an 8-hour window to retarget customers with personalized push notifications—no email, SMS opt-in, or cookies required. This gives you a second chance to convert up to 95% of ad clicks that would otherwise lead to nothing, all while providing deep, actionable insights into user behavior.
Here’s how it works:
- Engaging Discovery Across Platforms:
Run ads on channels like Meta, Instagram, or TikTok, or send iMessages, emails, or even create NFC tags with QR codes that direct customers to a Reactiv Clip. Shoppers can instantly engage with a specific feature or product page in your app, without needing to download anything. This first interaction is both smooth and valuable, designed to capture attention right when they’re interested. - Instant Re-engagement with Push Notifications:
The moment someone clicks on your Reactiv Clip, you have a unique opportunity to keep them engaged. Without requiring an opt-in, you can start sending push notifications that gently re-engage them, reminding them of any items they browsed or encouraging them to complete their purchase. - Seamless Purchase Flow:
With a Reactiv Clip, if a customer leaves before completing checkout, you can send a targeted push notification that brings them right back to where they left off, making it easier than ever to finish their purchase in just one click. - Drive Post-Purchase Engagement:
After a customer completes their purchase, use a final push notification to invite them to download the full app. This step provides added value, allowing them to track their order, explore more products, and stay connected with your brand beyond peak season.
Reactiv Clips’ impact on BFCM
Since introducing Reactiv Clips, we’ve seen Reactiv Plus merchants take full advantage of their potential. Especially during peak shopping periods like Black Friday Cyber Monday.
During BFCM 2024, Reactiv Clips users saw:
- 60% click rate on notifications
- 5.08% conversion rate on those ad clicks
- 7.16% of ad clicks leading to an app download
Over BFCM, Reactiv Clips helped brands decrease CAC, increase their ROAS, and double their add-to-carts. Achieving these results during a period when shoppers are bombarded with notifications is no small feat.
Reactiv Clips turn ad clicks directly into shopper engagement, closing the gap between discovery and conversion.
Customizing push notifications to match buyer intent
Push notifications are an effective way to grab user’s attention with personalized messaging delivered right to their phone. But like any retargeting strategy, they have to be well-planned and relevant.
Customizing your messaging and directing traffic to the relevant page based on the buyer’s intent increases the likelihood that they’ll convert.
Some of the most effective types of push notifications are:
- Abandoned cart:
When a customer leaves items in their cart, sometimes all they need is a gentle nudge to complete their order. If they’re browsing multiple stores and comparing options, they may have unintentionally forgotten about their cart. Sending a push notification reminding them about their order can help capture otherwise missed revenue.
- Browse abandonment:
Similarly, you can send a push notification when a customer spends time looking at a specific item without actually adding it to their cart. Browse abandonment notifications encourage users to take a second look, which could be the difference between a conversion and a lost opportunity.
- Sales announcements and reminders:
Create FOMO with push notifications about your sales and promotions. This works especially well for exclusive, limited-time-only sales by creating a sense of urgency. Customers won’t want to miss out and reminding them about their chance to save can drive a purchase.
One way to leverage push notifications is with Reactiv Clips.
The advantage of leveraging Reactiv Clips to send push notifications is the fact that you don’t have to wait for a user to download the app to send the notification. Once a customer engages with your app through a Reactiv Clip, you can retarget them for up to 8 hours through personalized push notifications (on iOS).
Ecommerce brands can now retarget every single ad click with a push notification—without an opt-in. Unsurprisingly, this has helped brands greatly decrease their CAC, improve the efficacy of their ad spend, and meet customers where they are.
Engage more customers—with zero friction—with Reactiv Clips
Reactiv Clips help you bring your mobile experience to more customers—even those who haven’t downloaded your app.
And that’s not even the best part.
Every ad click unlocks the ability to retarget customers with tailored, personalized push notifications turning discovery into conversions.
Book a demo of Reactiv Clips to see how it works for yourself.
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